h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Attention wonks, gurus, and know it alls(no derision intended). Please, help.

I've asked around and have gotten both answers to the question:

Should I go w/ cable or DSL?

Cox communications is going to be offering c/a for $30 per month (mo to mo), next month.

SWB Tel. is offering DSL for $40 per month (12 mo initial commitment)(yes, I'm close enough to the c.o.).

Need to do something as dial-up is driving me nuts (yeah,yeah, I know, it's a short trip)(but, not unduly bumpy).

Any help?
Thanks.

Oh, come on... I know you're out there.

Guess I'll stop back in later.

ttfn

In the UK we've got Cable (2mbps) and ADSL (500kbps) apparantly though DSL in the US is faster than cable.

realy if you have the choice choose firstly the one you can afford and secondly the fastest if it's in your price range.

Nobody can just tell you what to do, because it isn't a clear-cut choice. Each one is better for certain people. Let's look at the benefits and drawbacks of each

Cable
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Internet service through a cable modem is generally a bit cheaper. However, there are fewer vendors, so you could get stuck with service you don't like and little chance to go elsewhere.

Generally speaking, cable service installation is very simple. Cable modem service is designed for residential use -- so installing the modems and getting the service "switched on" is fairly hassle-free. However, the customer service may be lacking. Some cable companies are trying to utilize undertrained phone support personnel to handle internet users and some may be very unfamiliar with computers in general.

With cable internet service, the quality of your connection will depend on the amount of traffic over the cable lines. This includes digital cable access if it is available in your area, in addition to other cable-driven internet users. Some people have reported extremely fast service shortly after cable net access is offered, followed by months or years where the speed slowly degrades. You are not typically guaranteed any particular speed in your contract.


DSL
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DSL service is typically available from at least two vendors in your area if it is available at all. This means you can switch providers if you get disgruntled. However, it is more expensive overall.

DSL can be exceptionally painful to get installed. In some areas of the US, for instance, it can take as long as a *year or more* to convince the local phone company to do the necessary changes to their phone system to install your DSL service. This can particularly be a problem if you live in an unpopulated rural area, in the mountains, or in a very old neighborhood where the phone system hasn't been updated in decades.

For this reason, I recommend you ask for a hard installation date from the phone company. Try to get this date in writing if possible. Also ask what the typical turnaround is for DSL in your area. In some places, it can just be a matter of weeks or even days. It depends on your phone company and the state of the phone system in your area.

Once installed, DSL is reliably fast compared to cable modems. A minimum speed may be in your contract depending on the level of service you have chosen. In general, customer service for DSL is pretty good because many small to medium sized businesses rely on it, and they may be lucrative customers for the company in other ways.

Considerations for Both
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In both cases, special equipment may be required and there may be an installation fee. Get this information before comitting to either plan. Ask about specials when you call, because installation may be offered for free if you ask.

Keep your regular internet service until your cable or DSL service is installed. Don't disconnect your old service on the date you expect to have your new service installed, because things might not work out according to plan. Some people also recommend keeping your old service for an extra month -- just in case you are unsatisfied.

You need to read the small print for both offers very closely.

Its not just the speed of the link between you and the exchange / server that matters but also what bandwidth they are allowing you out onto the internet and how many users is it shared between.
Here in the UK theres a lot of hype by all concerned about how fast the link is from you to the server but when asked about network capacity and the throughput you can expect from internet connections they seem to go very quiet.
A lot of the services they use as examples of how fast the system is are hosted or mirrored on their local servers so the only link used is the one between you and them.
Remember even if they are offering decent capacity to user ration the fastest you will receive data from a specific site eg h2g2 is the speed of the slowest / most overloaded link between the site and yourself.

The best way to find out which is the better offer at the moment is to try and find existing users in your area and get their comments on the level of service actually being provided by these two companies.

I personally would avoid a year-long contract if I could and avoid startup costs if I could. Sometimes those are mutually exclusive.

As providers go, they've probably all screwed up at one time or another. 30 bucks a month for cable is quite a good deal in my opinion.

Comparing the technologies? Both have their drawbacks. Both are shared bandwidth to a degree, but cable is far more shared than DSL. You might want to ask if there's a guaranteed minimum bandwidth. Ask both companies this question. Cable is theoretically faster, particularly if there aren't too many users on your local loop, but in practice it may not be any faster at all. (Actually, in theory they max speed on each is about the same right now, but the low-cost DSL offers typically only quote max speed of no more than 784K bps. 7M bps downstream is possible right now on some ADSL systems. Cable could be about that fast if you're the only one on it.) As far as the real-world speed goes, it's probably a wash. If you have cable tv and it goes out a lot, you might not want to have cable access. If you feel one company or the other is better in customer service, perhaps you'd rather choose that one. It's likely that the cable install will require far less wait time than a DSL install.

If it were me, everything else being equal, and install costs being either free or very similar for each, I would choose the cable. I'd mostly base this choice on the lower cost and no comittment. And then I'd see how it goes. If I had lots of problems with the service, it would then be rather easy to switch, with no contract and such.

Good luck.

This post has been removed.

Thank you, all.
Well presented posts.
Trying the one w/o long term commitment 1st sounds like a good idea.
The long term is for a free modem.
Will keep you posted(not a play on words).
ta

The basic difference between cable and DSL is that on DSL, you have your own node, whereas with cable, you share it. Cable is faster than the highest grade of DSL, but only as long as there is no other traffic on your node. The more demand there is at your node, the slower your connection can become, until it makes you wish that you had stuck with dialup. However, that's not to say that this scenario will ever come to play, and you might still enjoy speeds on cable that are faster than some grades of DSL on a regular basis and for lower cost. It just depends on how many customers are with your cable provider, how many are using it at the same time as you in your immediate area, and how well the network is set up overall.

So that's the difference. If you sign up for 2Mbps cable, you may not always get 2 Mbps, but if you sign up for 760Kbps DSL, you'll get 760Kbps.

Not necessarily. Many home DSL service guarantees do *not* guarantee you the same bandwidth that they quote as the highest number. In other words, home ADSL that is sold as 760k downstream 128k upstream may only guarantee 128k downstream! In fact, the newest Covad home service which is 608k down / 128k up only guarantees 64k I believe. The variance is generally related to line quality and distance, but it can also be related to bandwidth sharing as well. Unless you have a business-level SDSL agreement which truly guarantees you that bandwidth, DSL can be just as prone to how many people are connected in your local area as cable.